As we approach another summer in Ohio the Stark County Humane Society (SCHS) is immersed in efforts to improve the physical structure of the Shelter, enhance the veterinary care we offer, pursue efforts to rescue sick and abandoned animals, support prosecutions in criminal neglect cases, educate the public as to the therapeutic effect of offering a loving adoptive home to an animal in need, and make our presence known in the community via visits to assisted living facilities and religious institutions and through participation in the Pro Football Hall of Fame Festival and other events.

We are revamping our social media and internet platforms and renovating our website to facilitate inquiries by individuals seeking to adopt an animal into their home. We are also exploring avenues for imaginative fund-raising events as well as a long term investment and planning strategy to ensure the SCHS’s viability and effectiveness well into the future.

The success of efforts to date and the development of a vision for the future are attributable to the dedicated activities of several members who recently retired from the Board of Directors. We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Dr. Scott Hunter for doing the research and furnishing the critical data needed to make informed decisions concerning enhancement of veterinary equipment and significant renovation and addition to the physical structure of the Shelter; to Sandra Dougherty and Michele Mullinax for their conscientious endeavors to improve our fund-raising and social outreach efforts and for the perspectives they brought concerning the community; and to the SCHS’s longtime Webmaster, Mike Zink, who for a quarter of a century dedicated himself to making the SCHS’s internet platform the best it could be. We wish all of these individuals and their families Godspeed and the best of health and happiness in the years ahead.

The SCHS benefits tremendously from the willingness of a professionally diverse group of individualsattorneys, veterinarians, dentists, retired law enforcement, current and retired public servants, business entrepreneurs, architects, engineers and financial advisors – to volunteer their time and talent by serving on the Board of Directors. We are grateful for the decisions made by Karl Heege and Mark Manwaring to assume the positions, respectively, of Vice President and Treasurer. And we are delighted to announce that Colleen Porter and Michael DeStefano-two individuals known for their business acumen and exemplary community service-have joined the SCHS Board of Directors. As our outstanding Executive Director, Jackie Godbey, expertly administers the SCHS on a daily basis, we ask for your continued support as we seek...

"Speak for Those Who Cannot Speak for Themselves."